Le Pen (you know, the right-wing nasty over in France) is a horror, of course. But every time someone in France or Germany goes to trial because he says something Nazi-ish, it makes me cringe a bit. More than a bit.
I hear from the occasional smug European how Americans wave their flags so hard that dissenters can’t get through the stars. I don’t think that’s exactly true, though the word treason has played on a lot of lips lately.
We have dissent. It so happens that the dissent here leans to the left (it’s not hard to get left of the gentlemen running the Executive Branch). This dissent may get shouted down or out-stupided on the radio, but even really Nut-Case Left opinion exists without fear of jail-time. In France, dissent leans to the right, and in Le Pen’s case, it’s Nut-Case Right. And in France, Nut-Case Right is illegal.
I’m not breaking new ground here. Most Americans would argue the same way that I argue. Thought and speech should be free. Let the people hawk their wares in the market-place of ideas. The crazy ideas will attract the crazy people, and why not let them rot together? How can a truly liberal state maintain laws against freedom of speech?
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